Yesterday my shaded back porch thermometer hit 109, and if anything, it reads a degree or two cool. We're now in something like our fiftieth (a little less, a little more depending on location) day of 100-degree or higher temps for the year. This July has just been officially declared the hottest month ever recorded in the oven formerly known as Oklahoma (quite the accomplishment for a state not known for the gentleness of its climate...) Today, Oklahoma City will likely break its all-time record high temperature. No rain, and no rain in the extended forecast, either.
Meanwhile, far southwest Oklahoma and a huge chunk of Texas is in even worse shape. Think moonscape, throw in the surface temperature of Mercury for good measure and you get a decent idea of what those folks are dealing with. The latest newsletter from the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch reads like, well, an obituary for the coming quail season. And we're just now (just now!) entering what is traditionally the hottest three-week period of the year. Yay.
I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have to drive for my bird hunting this year. And I'm beginning to suspect that - despite the fact I now have a boat to duck hunt out of - I will have no water on which to float the damn thing because the area lakes will be too low to launch boats.
And dog training? Fuggetabout it. Don't want to take the chance running the dogs in this heat, and every bit of water around me is either gone or coated with a nasty green sheen of algae, dead fish and beer cans.
A few days ago, in an e-mail to Steve Bodio I jokingly wrote "forecast high tomorrow of 107 and 110 on Tuesday. I used to think it was just bird season that was looking grim. I may have to upgrade that pessimism forecast to include existence itself...
Hyperbole or a wee bit of whistling past the graveyard? I guess we'll see in the next decade or so, but I've got one eye (and a head full of daydreams) trained in the direction of Montana. And I'm not the only one...
You just have to ask yourself what's worse: winter in Montana or summer in Oklahoma? Decisions, decisions...
